


Legacy in Progress

by Meatball42



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Family, Family of Choice, Fluff, Gen, Nighttime, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-15 06:44:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21249134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meatball42/pseuds/Meatball42
Summary: Using the Infinity Stones nearly killed him. Some nights Tony thinks it should have killed him. But it didn’t. He’s still alive. He hasn’t been able to get out of this bed at all, but he’s alive. And he’s not going to waste it.





	Legacy in Progress

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Hecate](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hecate/gifts).

> Thanks to defenestrating reason for proof-reading this <3

Tony wakes up slowly, peacefully, in a still hospital room faintly lit through the window. It’s nighttime, and quiet. It’s so quiet that he feels moving would break some sort of patina, invite in—not something dangerous, it doesn’t feel like something bad could happen right now, but. To move would invite more movement, invite sound, and make things happen.

Right now nothing is happening, and it’s nice. 

He’s been in the hospital for over a month, ever since the final battle with Thanos. Using the Infinity Stones nearly killed him. Some nights Tony thinks it should have killed him. But it didn’t. He’s still alive. He hasn’t been able to get out of this bed at all, but he’s alive. And he’s not going to waste it.

He lays on his back on the cot, watching the ceiling, the empty chairs, the contrast of his hands on the white blankets. He’s awake for a long time before a shadow detaches from a dark corner of the room and approaches.

Tony has one second of heart-pounding surprise and fear before he recognizes the shape of the shadow, and slides easily back into tranquility.

With the room as dark as it is, it’s hard to tell that Nebula’s skin is blue. It could just be a trick of the thin light. What gives her away as alien is her big black eyes, somehow recognizably fixed on his face even without pupils.

She doesn’t look away from the mess his face must be, which is typical. She never looks away from something hard.

“Your mission finished up, then?” he asks.

“Lang sustained minor injuries,” Nebula says quietly in her gravelly voice. “Otherwise, everyone is fine. The mission was a success.”

Tony nods. “You don’t have to stay here overnight, you know.”

“I’m on watch.”

She’s as still as the furniture. It would be unsettling—maybe it should be—but that’s just Nebula. Since they defeated Thanos and she didn’t leave the planet, she’s spent a lot of time visiting Tony. They’ve gotten to know each other better, bonded even more deeply than when they each accepted their death on a doomed spaceship in the empty center of the universe.

In the middle of the night, in the dark, he feels the same connection. He reaches out to her, forgetting for a moment that she doesn’t really do comfort. And indeed, she doesn’t move a step closer, doesn’t even sway an inch. But Tony knows that doesn’t mean she doesn’t care.

“You should sleep,” Nebula tells him, and for a moment he second-guesses his ears, because she sounds… tender.

She goes back to the corner. Tony isn’t tired. He figures he’s been out for a while. Instead, he pulls out his phone and gets to work.

It’s around five in the morning, the sun softening the lines of night outside his window, before he falls asleep. Nebula is a silent companion in an otherwise quiet room.

  
  


Tony’s family comes by in the morning; well, his family and some hangers-on. Morgan sits under his arm and Pepper sits beside the bed on the other side. Peter has a chair, but more often he’s pacing or leaning or sitting on the windowsill. Rhodey was Peter’s ride, which is his excuse for being there, because of course he’s got lots of important things to do, so Tony’d better get over his drama so that Rhodey doesn’t have to keep coming over here to visit, got it?

Nebula stays in her corner and watches.

They all clear out when Pepper asks for a private moment with Tony. Morgan waves goodbye to her daddy with one hand, the other clutching Rhodey’s neck as he carries her out.

Pepper settles next to Tony’s hip and takes his hand. Before she can speak, Tony pulls it to his lips for a kiss. She shakes her head at him, but she’s charmed.

“This is important.”

He kisses her hand again, unable to suppress his smile.

Pepper laughs, which was his goal, and then takes her hand back, which was inevitable.

“I want to bring Peter home with us for a little while,” she tells him. “May says their building was left to sit for five years, it’s not habitable right now. She’s staying with a friend so she can keep going to work, but there’s not room for Peter. I told her it wouldn’t be a problem.”

“Good, yeah.” Tony has a flash of deja vu, sure that he’s back in one of his dreams where Peter is Morgan’s big brother, and alive, and they get along and everything’s perfect.

But he comes back to reality when Pepper says, “And I have a suggestion for your bodyguard.”

“My what?”

“Nebula? She’s barely left your side except for missions. She even watched over your surgery. Pretty sure the doctors were too intimidated to tell her no.”

“Huh,” Tony says. “Didn’t know I rated 24/7 surveillance.”

“Natasha is worried about her. She says Nebula never takes a break, never takes a day off. She had an idea, and I think it’s a good one.”

“Uh-oh.” Tony straightens instinctively, then hisses. “Ow. You two aren’t ganging up on me, are you?”

“Of course not,” Pepper cajoles, which means yes. “We think Nebula should come stay at home with us for a while. It’ll be good for everyone.”

Tony bites his lips, then shakes his head. “No, look. We get along, we both like taking things apart and we had a solid deep-space bonding session, but I think there are actual, metaphysical implications to putting that many daddy issues under one roof. It’s that simple, we wouldn’t all fit.”

He shrugs for emphasis and hisses, stiffening. Pepper reaches out to steady his shoulders.

“Relax, Tony. I have a plan, if you let me explain, I think you’ll agree. Are you listening?”

Tony nods, grudgingly.

“You’re going to be moving slowly for a few weeks—-”

“Days, I’ll be fine in a few days—”

“— _ weeks, _ and I still need to be in the city dealing with all the SI employees and their family members who have come back. We can ask Nebula to stay over while you’re on bed rest—”

“On  _ what?” _

“—as backup for you. And we ask Peter to introduce her to some Earth things, and both of them to keep Morgan entertained.”

Tony crosses his arms, grouchily and gingerly. “And how does this make anyone, much less everyone, happy?”

“Peter gets paid for babysitting. Nebula is forced to take time off, learns things about Earth that aren’t related to the Avengers, and maybe even relaxes a tiny bit. Morgan will get to spend time with Peter.”

Pepper takes Tony’s hand, smiling because she knows how much he’s wanted that.

“And you’ll get to do some work without being summoned every five minutes, and hopefully you’ll stay in bed.”

“And you?”

Pepper sighs, smiling dreamily. “I get to know there’s at least one responsible adult looking after my family.”

Tony scowls. He isn’t going to ask.

Pepper laughs at him.

“So you agree?”

“I…” Tony hesitates. “I don’t know. I’m not sure where I stand with her. I knew she was spending a lot of time here, but…” 

“I know where you stand with her.” Pepper is giving him a look like he’s done something cute. “You were the same way when you met Harley. You fell in love and it confused you so much.”

“I’m not—that’s crazy,” he sputters. “We’re in a hospital, you should get checked out.”

Pepper rolls her eyes. “You made Peter an Iron Man suit less than a year after meeting him. Harley is probably the only kid in Tennessee with a server farm in his backyard.”

She takes his chin in her hand and holds his face in her direction. “I knew you would be an amazing father long before we met Morgan. I think maybe that’s what’s drawing Nebula toward you.”

She lets go of his face with a caress. “If you’re not comfortable, we can let it go. I can send Happy home to help out with Morgan. But if any of this is ringing a bell? I think she could use someone. Think about it.”

Pepper gets up from the bed and begins collecting her things. She kisses Tony on the cheek and he turns to beg a better kiss with his eyes. She breathes a laugh over his lips and obliges.

“I love you.”

“I love you more.”

She leaves.

It’s less than a minute before Nebula slips back inside, her focused gaze scanning the room in case a new threat has popped up in the ten minutes she’s been gone. Satisfied, she settles back in her corner.

Tony watches her uneasily for a moment. Pepper’s really gotten into his head. Just last night, seeing her sitting over there was a comfort. She had a spot to herself, he had a spot to himself, everything was great. But now when he looks at her tucked over there, half out of sight, he just remembers being told to go play in the corner of whatever room his father was in, until he was trotted out to do a trick.

He pictures Morgan sitting herself over there to guard him and has such a visceral reaction that his heart monitor ticks up by a few beats.

“Hey, uh. Nebula. Why don’t you come over here?”

She approaches and stands at the foot of his bed. Her weight is perfectly balanced, like she’s expecting an attack, but she’s watching him intently.

Tony can feel the exact moment he gives in. He always thought he would be a terrible father, and he still has days where he worries that he’s ruining Morgan, leading Harley down an isolating path, and he’s had five years worth of blaming himself for Peter’s death. But he knows they all love him anyway.

Nebula may be a blue, sword-wielding alien assassin, but if she wants into this family, the universe will have to pry her from his cold, dead fingers.

“Pull up a chair,” he says to her. “I’ve got a proposition for you.”


End file.
